Apple Ending Ad-Supported iTunes Radio Stations at End of January

[Avenged110]

I wonder what will happen to the iTunes Radio tab on the 3rd Gen Apple TV...

Same. Interested to see what happens to the iTunes Radio functions (aside from not working) on my second gen. Apple TVs and iTunes 11 installations. Are the Radio functions (apps, buttons, etc.) going to disappear because they're simply a web backend, or is it just going to be a blank or error page? It'd be hilarious if it still worked, now ad-free haha.
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I always downloaded the free single of the week. Some I liked, some I didn't. A few I bought the albums...

I miss that quite a lot. I found several artists I really enjoy and collected some good songs.

 

[mcfly88]

If they get rid of Match.. I will be livid.

 

[vmachiel]

I honestly forget this even existed..

 

[Celer-Silens-Mortalis]

I just would like to know where to move my 150 gigs of music. Given the fact all devices in my family are from Apple and ALL of the music is stored in iTunes and we've been an iTunes Match member since its inception, where else does one move ones life?

I only put all my "eggs in one basket" becasue Jobs fought so hard to get rid of DRM. Oh well, right now I'm trying to make hard copies of everything I've purchased and if I purchase any new content, I purchase cd's from Amazon and usually that includes a auto download.

As much as I love Apple and I still think they're a great outfit, I think they are on their way out. imho

 

[Keirasplace]

I just would like to know where to move my 150 gigs of music. Given the fact all devices in my family are from Apple and ALL of the music is stored in iTunes and we've been an iTunes Match member since its inception, where else does one move ones life?

I only put all my "eggs in one basket" becasue Jobs fought so hard to get rid of DRM. Oh well, right now I'm trying to make hard copies of everything I've purchased and if I purchase any new content, I purchase cd's from Amazon and usually that includes a auto download.

As much as I love Apple and I still think they're a great outfit, I think they are on their way out. imho

On their way out when making 50B in profits (not revenues...) in one quarter? What?

I don't think they're cancelling Itunes match, so again, what are you talking about?
150G is about 150K songs at the highest level of encoding, so you couldn't even put that into match until very very recently. You could only put, 1/5 of that. So, again, very melodramatic.

So, what is the alternative to Apple... please tell us so we can go see this "nirvana".

 

[rvinny]

Apple loves to go on about their halo effect and how sticky their products are. This will have the opposite effect.

I used iTunes Match because it offered all my music and ad-free radio in one place. No need for 3rd party apps. I bought an AppleTV because I used iTunes Match. I continued to go with Apple products (like the watch vs a Fitbit) because of their ecosystem. Now they are shutting down one of the core pillars of what I like from Apple (but I am free to keep it if I pay more). I already have every iteration of their devices. Haven't I paid enough?

My new TV has Android on it with 4k support so that new Apple TV was looking less shiny already. Throw in Google's free and pretty good Photo and Music services, and my Apple ecosystem is in jeopardy of unravelling.

I love having everything under one roof and Apple was a very good place for this. However, their business practices in the last two years with constantly upselling and squeezing more $$ out of their users has me seriously considering Android / Windows for my next tech upgrade cycle.
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I don't want to speak of the coming "doom" of Apple, because I think they will be around for awhile. But, things like this make me question my continued support of Apple.

I have many Apple products, and have used many of their services, but lately, sometimes I feel like the people in charge at Apple wants us to hate them.

yes, exactly this. Now if they make iTunes Match free, all will be forgiven

 

[pondosinatra]

FFS. Can someone answer me? Are we talking about the Internet Radio functionality in iTunes???

 

[HangmanSwingset]

Beats 1 reminds me that music is like candy... You're supposed to THROW AWAY the rappers.

 

[2010mini]

FFS. Can someone answer me? Are we talking about the Internet Radio functionality in iTunes???

No. I believe those are actual radio stations and not curated radio like on the iOS devices.


For all those upset about this move (myself included)

What if Apple is doing this so it can position itself as the only paid streaming service?

We all know Artists and labels really do NOT like free streaming services. They really just tolerate them. But if this is their goal, Apple might just be able to get exclusives to content not available anywhere.

Thoughts?

 

[lunarworks]

I'm not going to risk sounding like my dad, so I'll just say different people have different tastes. Every time I listened to Beats 1, I heard sounds which weren't to my taste. After the third try, I didn't try again.

If they'd mixed it up, hip hop then rock then pop then dance then classical, for example, everyone would find something they liked and something they didn't. They could then have sold a subscription with the promise of extra stations which match your own taste. Instead they went heavy on one particular genre, alienating many of the commenters on this thread.

It seems Dr Dre had far more influence than Zane Lowe.

I always downloaded the free single of the week. Some I liked, some I didn't. A few I bought the albums. That's what the free radio station should have been: an advert for the breadth and depth of the iTunes Store.

Hip-Hop is only a third of what they're playing, but that's enough for forum members to scream "IT'S ALL HIP-HOP!"

They do mix it up, too. Just no classical, because they're not gonna get the youth market with that.

 

[Spankey]

Hip-Hop is only a third of what they're playing, but that's enough for forum members to scream "IT'S ALL HIP-HOP!"

They do mix it up, too. Just no classical, because they're not gonna get the youth market with that.

It doesn't matter what they're playing. One station is not enough to satisfy all tastes. The station will serve as and advertisement to buy into Apple Music. The problem is, if you subscribe for radio you will be sorely disappointed in the channel offerings.

Two things are probably causing this. First, Apple has probably lost a lot of subscribers after the initial free three month offering. Second, there have been many lawsuits filed against other companies and the cost of royalties is going up so Apple may have to cover current and future costs that they pay to artists.

I'm fine without having radio stations included in iTunes Match as long as I can store music in the cloud and able to sync it easily to my phone. Lossless files are stored on my NAS and backed up remotely. Find the best streaming radio service that fits your needs. There are better alternatives than Apple. Pandora, Slacker, iHeart Radio are all accessible via CarPlay as well so there is no added difficulty getting to them when in the car.

Apple Radio is a failed experiment. They might as well shut the whole thing down.

 

[rhett7660]

I solved this problem a long time ago with plex. I stream my library to my phone. All the music I like with no commercials. I have a pandora and slacker account but I rarely use them. I did use apple radio on more than one occasion and I did find some new music.

I kinda saw this coming when Beats 1 come out. Competing radio services from the same company.

 

[OllyW]

What if Apple is doing this so it can position itself as the only paid streaming service?

We all know Artists and labels really do NOT like free streaming services. They really just tolerate them. But if this is their goal, Apple might just be able to get exclusives to content not available anywhere.

Thoughts?

I don't think the music industry will want Apple to be the only streaming service. They still regret letting Apple gain so much power with the way iTunes have dominated downloads over the last 10 years which is why they played hardball with the Apple Music royalty negotiations.

 

[Westside guy]

No. I believe those are actual radio stations and not curated radio like on the iOS devices.

I don't believe those iTunes Radio stations are curated. I think the playlists are generated by a computer based on genre and possibly other metadata.

If they're actually curated, the person in charge is doing a bad job. Every once in a while I'll hear a mis-labeled song come through that definitely doesn't belong to the same genre as the playlist I'm listening to (e.g. I'm listening to, say, "Duran Duran Radio" or, worse, "Dave Bruebeck Radio"
and suddenly Coldplay pops up. ). Easy to explain for a computer "curator", less so for a human.

On a side note - I am a current iTunes Match subscriber and, as of today (Sunday January 17), still have not received this email. So I'm going to wait and see what happens.

 

[GadgetDon]

Hip-Hop is only a third of what they're playing, but that's enough for forum members to scream "IT'S ALL HIP-HOP!"

They do mix it up, too. Just no classical, because they're not gonna get the youth market with that.

It may be only a third of what they're playing, but at 1/3 of the day, it's the only thing they play. Meaning if you're in the mood to listen to some music and don't care for hip-hop, well, Beats-1 is not an acceptable choice.

iTunes radio, any time day or not, I can decide if I want my novelty/humor interest fulfilled, folk, light pop, whatever.

 

[2010mini]

I don't think the music industry will want Apple to be the only streaming service. They still regret letting Apple gain so much power with the way iTunes have dominated downloads over the last 10 years which is why they played hardball with the Apple Music royalty negotiations.

Not the only streaming service. Just the only one without a free tier and brand loyalty.

 

[Juicy Box]

n a side note - I am a current iTunes Match subscriber and, as of today (Sunday January 17), still have not received this email. So I'm going to wait and see what happens.

I too am a iTunes Match subscriber and I have not received the email.

I doubt this will be the case, but maybe the ad free version will continue for Match customers. Although that would be strange for Apple to end the Radio service for so many people, but continue to support it for the small number of Match subs.

 

[aced411]

Pretty much same thing here. Big bummer, got iTunes Match for my devices and listened to the ad free radio stations frequently. Will switch to my complimentary T-Mobile Rhapsody subscription exclusively now.

Not cool, Apple!

Apple's radio stations kind of sucked anyways, at least for me. I would cancel match and use Google Music. You can upload all of your music, listen to it with the app and it will stay in sync for free. There's radio to boot, or Spotify has great radio functionality. There's just too many options that are better than Apple in this category.

 

[Westside guy]

I too am a iTunes Match subscriber and I have not received the email.

The weird thing is - the story link that purports to be about Match subscribers receiving the email doesn't actually say anything about Match... unless I'm missing something obvious (which is always a possibility).

 

[MacFanatick]

I solved this problem a long time ago with plex. I stream my library to my phone. All the music I like with no commercials. I have a pandora and slacker account but I rarely use them. I did use apple radio on more than one occasion and I did find some new music.

I kinda saw this coming when Beats 1 come out. Competing radio services from the same company.

Plex is great for movies too!
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Just came to post this:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-music.html

Perhaps we can use this link to express our thoughts directly to Apple, Inc. Democracy FTW!

This was my feedback to Apple:

As a longtime customer, shareholder and iTunes Match subscriber, I am disappointed to read that the Radio feature is being dropped from iTunes Match. I will of course expect a prorated fee if I choose to continue with iTunes Match, given that Radio is and has been advertised as a feature of the service. I do hope you will reconsider this move, as it will undoubtedly compel me and other customers to consider competing services, some of which have equally impressive catalogs and even higher sound quality via lossless and MQA support...
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Tidal HiFi is totally worth the $19.99 a month.

Looks like instead of a new Apple TV, I'll be getting an Auralic Aries Mini. It's just a little more expensive when you consider the bundled one year Tidal HiFi subscription - and it will stream MQA!

 

[BuffaloTF]

Oh, and I agree. Beats 1 is absolute garbage for those that don't like the rap/hiphop stuff.

If they would come up with maybe 5 total stations with some more variety of genres, i could give it a try. But Beats 1 is absolute crap.

There's 22 hours a day that Ebro isn't on... When rap and hip hop isn't played or is just a single song in a set.

 

[WaxedJacket]

Ya blew it Apple.

 

[robertcoogan]

Like I care. Plenty of free alternatives out there anyway. Why pay?

 

[BSben]

At least they won't be shutting this service down in most countries like Germany, France, UK, Italy, Turkey, Russia..... we never got it in the first place, so I suppose we are all glad to see it die at last, a hint of equality at last....

 

[\-V-/]

This was my feedback to Apple:

As a longtime customer, shareholder and iTunes Match subscriber, I am disappointed to read that the Radio feature is being dropped from iTunes Match. I will of course expect a prorated fee if I choose to continue with iTunes Match, given that Radio is and has been advertised as a feature of the service. I do hope you will reconsider this move, as it will undoubtedly compel me and other customers to consider competing services, some of which have equally impressive catalogs and even higher sound quality via lossless and MQA support...

Unless you're Taylor Swift, that's not likely to do anything.